Scan barcode
jessjohnnson's review
hopeful
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.5
Epstein kinda spits facts. The later sections of the book kind of drags into less well-supported arguments. Overall, it was a compelling read to reframe the modern climate discourse around one that centres on human flourishing. My engineer brain appreciated the talk around how crucial to our quality of life fossil fuels are.
ryanklynn's review against another edition
challenging
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
5.0
philip_rudy's review
5.0
Loved this book. Made me want to go to work.
I wrote a full review of it here:
https://bridgethegap28.medium.com/fossil-future-book-review-8ce79c58b908
I wrote a full review of it here:
https://bridgethegap28.medium.com/fossil-future-book-review-8ce79c58b908
orasmis's review
1.0
*Free copy given in exchange for an honest review*
Warning, I am going to be very negative in this review. I am also going to spoil a lot of the main points in order to point out how absurd they are so if you want to read book than don’t read this review. I’m going to heartily say to not bother reading the book though. It was a waste of my time and it’s going to be a waste of your time.
The basic premise of this book is that in order to save humanity from climate change and increase the quality of life for humanity what needs to be done is use more fossil fuels instead of less. And not just use less fossil fuels, remove almost all regulations from their use.
I can see that the author is passionate about the subject but this book may actively go against his cause. I’m trying to be diplomatic in my review of this and oh boy is it dang near impossible. It’s been a long time since I’ve read worse logic and reasoning in a book. I didn’t know the arguments in here were ones that people actually use in real life. I thought they were fake arguments.
Some of the gems are:
- Who cares if global warming increases the planet’s temperature. Air conditioning exists and that totally cancels that out.
- Global warming affects things more in the winter than summer and we all want it to be warmer in the winter am I right?
- Rising global temperatures will mean that people will stop freezing to death and that’s a good thing.
- Stronger storms aren’t a big deal just build sturdier buildings.
- The infrastructure needed to support green energy is cost prohibitive to build. But drought isn’t a bad thing because we can totally afford to build a bunch of irrigation infrastructure to fix that. And aid can always be shipped in if we can’t that totally isn’t a burden on other countries.
- Wildfires aren’t a big deal. Just increase logging! Wildfires can’t happen if you cut the trees down.
- Increased CO2 in the air is a good thing because plants eat that so more CO2 equals more plants.
- We don’t have to worry about runaway climate change because we definitely will invent new ways to deal with climate change in the future. Don’t know what ways but I’m sure it will happen trust me.
- Green energy isn’t viable but if it was the system would oppose it. Okay I have no proof but I’m gonna say that it would be anyway trust me.
-Oceans can be mastered even though we know almost nothing about them. But if it can’t be who cares the land is more important than the ocean.
- If the climate gets too bad in one part of the world people can just move to a better part. Also climate refugees are barely going to be a thing.
- Dangerous thunderstorms and hurricanes aren’t all that bad after all the setting can be very romantic.
- Experts about climate change might be wrong because they were wrong about slavery being a good thing right?
The author claims that we need to listen to experts in their fields for knowledge in subjects and then says that he will only accept that you are a climate expert if you agree with him. Dismisses the opinions of everyone that is worried about climate change and climate disaster as being biased but the people that are more moderate or agree with him are definitely correct and not biased in any way. If you support green energy in any way you can’t be trusted.
Just about the only thing I agree with him on is that we need to find a way to increase the use of nuclear energy.
Also this book is way too long. It would have been so much shorter if he didn’t repeat himself so often. I don’t need a chapter recap in the middle of a chapter. I just read it. You don’t need to summarize previous chapters multiple times. I started to feel like I was going to be quizzed at the end.
I’m almost convinced that this is some kind of elaborate satire/troll that I’m just not getting. I refuse to believe that someone can be this stupid. I won’t believe that someone can be this stupid. Writing this right after finishing the book I may come back later to edit or add to make my point more clear. As of now I give this one star. Don’t read this. It’s not worth your time.
Warning, I am going to be very negative in this review. I am also going to spoil a lot of the main points in order to point out how absurd they are so if you want to read book than don’t read this review. I’m going to heartily say to not bother reading the book though. It was a waste of my time and it’s going to be a waste of your time.
The basic premise of this book is that in order to save humanity from climate change and increase the quality of life for humanity what needs to be done is use more fossil fuels instead of less. And not just use less fossil fuels, remove almost all regulations from their use.
I can see that the author is passionate about the subject but this book may actively go against his cause. I’m trying to be diplomatic in my review of this and oh boy is it dang near impossible. It’s been a long time since I’ve read worse logic and reasoning in a book. I didn’t know the arguments in here were ones that people actually use in real life. I thought they were fake arguments.
Some of the gems are:
- Who cares if global warming increases the planet’s temperature. Air conditioning exists and that totally cancels that out.
- Global warming affects things more in the winter than summer and we all want it to be warmer in the winter am I right?
- Rising global temperatures will mean that people will stop freezing to death and that’s a good thing.
- Stronger storms aren’t a big deal just build sturdier buildings.
- The infrastructure needed to support green energy is cost prohibitive to build. But drought isn’t a bad thing because we can totally afford to build a bunch of irrigation infrastructure to fix that. And aid can always be shipped in if we can’t that totally isn’t a burden on other countries.
- Wildfires aren’t a big deal. Just increase logging! Wildfires can’t happen if you cut the trees down.
- Increased CO2 in the air is a good thing because plants eat that so more CO2 equals more plants.
- We don’t have to worry about runaway climate change because we definitely will invent new ways to deal with climate change in the future. Don’t know what ways but I’m sure it will happen trust me.
- Green energy isn’t viable but if it was the system would oppose it. Okay I have no proof but I’m gonna say that it would be anyway trust me.
-Oceans can be mastered even though we know almost nothing about them. But if it can’t be who cares the land is more important than the ocean.
- If the climate gets too bad in one part of the world people can just move to a better part. Also climate refugees are barely going to be a thing.
- Dangerous thunderstorms and hurricanes aren’t all that bad after all the setting can be very romantic.
- Experts about climate change might be wrong because they were wrong about slavery being a good thing right?
The author claims that we need to listen to experts in their fields for knowledge in subjects and then says that he will only accept that you are a climate expert if you agree with him. Dismisses the opinions of everyone that is worried about climate change and climate disaster as being biased but the people that are more moderate or agree with him are definitely correct and not biased in any way. If you support green energy in any way you can’t be trusted.
Just about the only thing I agree with him on is that we need to find a way to increase the use of nuclear energy.
Also this book is way too long. It would have been so much shorter if he didn’t repeat himself so often. I don’t need a chapter recap in the middle of a chapter. I just read it. You don’t need to summarize previous chapters multiple times. I started to feel like I was going to be quizzed at the end.
I’m almost convinced that this is some kind of elaborate satire/troll that I’m just not getting. I refuse to believe that someone can be this stupid. I won’t believe that someone can be this stupid. Writing this right after finishing the book I may come back later to edit or add to make my point more clear. As of now I give this one star. Don’t read this. It’s not worth your time.
More...